The England striker also warns that United cannot afford to give Chelsea a three-goal start, as they did last season at Stamford Bridge.

United fought back to draw 3-3, with Rooney scoring twice from the ­penalty spot.

But with Sir Alex Ferguson’s side already leaking goals and regularly giving opponents a start, Rooney is concerned that Chelsea’s current form would make a bad start too much of a handicap.

Roo goes into the top-of-the-table battle, saying: “Mata is a great ­player and Hazard has settled in really well in his first season.

“So I think those two, along with Torres, are the three biggest threats.

“I don’t think Torres gets the credit he ­deserves because he works hard for the team.

“Sometimes the goals go in for him, at other times they don’t. But he’s ­always ­trying.”

Rooney, 27 last week, said: “Chelsea have started ­brilliantly – and have brought in fantastic players.

“This season they have a lot more pace about them. So the ­important thing, first of all, is to make sure we defend well.

“Then we have to try to score some goals. But it’s clear, having won the Champions League last season, that achieving that has given them a lot more confidence.

“They have then bought a lot of new players and added more speed to the team. We know we are going to have to be at our best and we don’t want to be ­giving ourselves a lot to do by going behind and having to score a few to win.

“We don’t want to be doing that against the best teams, because it will be difficult to get those goals back to win.

“It happened against Braga the other night in the Champions League and we did well to get back in the game and win it.

“But you can’t afford to be going one or two goals down against Chelsea away – although we did last season. We can’t afford to do that again.”

On United’s bid to regain the title, Rooney said: “You never really know how many teams will eventually be in the race to win it.

“You always know it is going to be a difficult league to win.

“There are three, four, five teams who are doing well, so we have to make sure we keep going, keep picking up ­results. And hopefully, come the end of the ­season, we will be in there.

“There is always hunger and determination here, regardless of what has happened the previous season.

“Even if we had won it last season, that ­hunger and desire would still be there.

“That’s because of the way the club is run. It’s the way the players and the manager feel.

“Last season was a big disappointment so we will give ­everything to try to win the title back.”

Rooney will be doing that in whatever ­position Fergie asks him to play.

And his pressing concern is that every United player does his job today wherever they are playing on the pitch.

He doesn’t want falling further behind in the Premier League becoming a case of Chelsea being a Bridge too far.